Gary, Indiana

Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana. It was founded by US Steel in 1906 as the home for its new plant, Gary Works, and the steel industry boom led to a rapid increase in Gary's population, 29.7% of them being immigrants in 1920. By 1930, Gary was the fifth-largest city in Indiana, and 17.8% of the population consisted of African-Americans who migrated north during the Great Migration. However, the decline of the steel industry during the 1960s led to the city spiralling into decline; the nonwhite population rose from 21% in 1930 to 53% in 1980, and, by 2000, 84% of the population was black. By 2013, one-third of all homes in the city were abandoned, and it suffered from high unemployment, decaying infrastructure, low literacy, and low educational attainment levels. By 2018, Gary had a population of 75,282 people.